House File 526 was signed into law by Gov. Terry Branstad before he resigned to become the U.S. ambassador to China. It creates two additional invasion of privacy criminal offenses that would be considered aggravated misdemeanors punishable by jail time and fines for people who spread racy or sexually graphic photos of someone online without that person's permission.

Erin Romar, a third-year law student at Drake Law School, was one of the key forces in getting this law passed. Romar had heard a speaker during a lecture held by the Drake Constitutional Law Center explain how Iowa had no laws against "revenge porn." She then started working with professors from the Drake Legislative Practice Center and lawmakers, aiming to change that.

Romar said after speaking with victims and doing research, she learned most of them who sought help often couldn't get anything done.

"That is just debilitating to victims," she said. "It destroys their lives, it destroys jobs."

Romar said having harsher laws in place for anyone who disseminates, publishes, distributes, posts sexually graphic content of a person without their permission means victims can find justice for cyber crimes. She cited social media apps like Instagram and Snapchat as examples of where this often happens.

"This law really helps protect the victims of the behind the scenes actions the perpetrators are using," she said.

Daniel Zeno, with the ACLU of Iowa, says they support the purpose of the bill, but worry there could be unintentional consequences.

"The intent of the bill is to protect victims, protect privacy rights" he said. "We support those goals."

But Zeno says "disseminate" could be interpreted broadly -- and could lead to multiple people being criminally charged.

"Then a third party gets the image and they share the image, then a fourth party and then they share the image," he said. "All of those additional sharings could be criminalized."

Julie Smith, director of the Legislative Practice Center at Drake Law School, says the bill was a bipartisan effort.

"We just stuck with it and worked very intensely with Representative (Greg) Heartsill," she said. Heartsill, a Republican from Marion County, guided the bill to passage on the House floor.